Just to prove that technology always waits to fail until the point when you don’t have enough money to replace it, it looks like my five-year-old multi-region DVD player is finally on its way towards Valhalla. It’s already started crossing its arms and going “Sorry, I don’t think so!” when I insert certain DVDs into it, and now it seems to get tired of playing discs after an hour, deciding that episodes of The Simpsons would work much better with Pinteresque pauses inserted in at random. We’re not completely without options, thankfully- it’s just vexxing and annoying. Plus, it means that, for the immediate future, watching discs from other regions will be tricky.

I’m now waiting for the next technological prop in my life to decide to explode…